GDPR compliance checklist – IBM Blog

The Basic Knowledge Safety Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) legislation that governs how organizations acquire and use private information. Any firm working within the EU or dealing with EU residents’ information should adhere to GDPR necessities.

Nevertheless, GDPR compliance will not be essentially an easy matter. The legislation outlines a set of knowledge privateness rights for customers and a sequence of ideas for the processing of non-public information. Organizations should uphold these rights and ideas, however the GDPR leaves some room for every firm to determine how.

The stakes are excessive, and the GDPR imposes vital penalties for non-compliance. Essentially the most severe violations can result in fines of as much as EUR 20,000,000 or 4% of the group’s worldwide international turnover within the earlier yr. GDPR regulators may terminate illicit information processing actions and compel organizations to make modifications.

The guidelines under covers the core GDPR laws. How a corporation meets these laws will rely on its distinctive circumstances, together with the varieties of knowledge it collects and the way it makes use of that information.

GDPR fundamentals

The GDPR applies to any group based mostly within the European Financial Space (EEA). The EEA contains all 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

The GDPR additionally applies to organizations exterior of the EEA if:

The corporate repeatedly gives items or companies to EEA residents, even when no cash is exchanged.

The corporate repeatedly screens the exercise of EEA residents, akin to by utilizing monitoring cookies.

The corporate processes information on behalf of an organization based mostly within the EEA.

The GDPR doesn’t solely apply to companies utilizing buyer information for business functions. It applies to almost any group that processes EEA residents’ information for any goal. Faculties, hospitals and authorities businesses all fall beneath GDPR authority.

The one information processing actions exempt from the GDPR are nationwide safety or legislation enforcement actions and purely private makes use of of knowledge.

Helpful definitions

The GDPR makes use of some particular terminology. To know compliance necessities, organizations should perceive what these phrases imply on this context.

The GDPR defines private information as any info referring to an identifiable human being. Every little thing from e-mail addresses to political beliefs counts as private information.

An information topic is the human being who owns the information. Put one other means, it’s the particular person the information pertains to. Say an organization collects telephone numbers to ship advertising and marketing messages through SMS. The homeowners of these telephone numbers can be information topics.

When the GDPR refers to information topics, it means information topics who reside within the EEA. Topics needn’t be EU residents to have information privateness rights beneath the GDPR. They merely should be EEA residents.

An information controller is any group, group or individual that obtains private information and determines how it’s used. Returning to a earlier instance, an organization amassing telephone numbers for advertising and marketing functions can be a controller. 

Knowledge processing is any motion achieved to information, together with amassing, storing or analyzing it. An information processor is any group or actor that performs such actions.

An organization may be each a controller and a processor, like an organization that each collects telephone numbers and makes use of them to ship advertising and marketing messages. Processors additionally embrace third events that course of information on behalf of controllers, like a cloud storage service that hosts a telephone quantity database for one more enterprise.

Supervisory authorities are the regulatory our bodies that implement GDPR necessities. Every EEA nation has its personal supervisory authority.

Discover information safety and safety options

The GDPR compliance guidelines

At a excessive stage, a corporation is GDPR compliant if it:

Adheres to the information processing ideas

Upholds the rights of knowledge topics

Applies applicable information safety measures

Follows the foundations for information transfers and information sharing

The next guidelines breaks these necessities down additional. The sensible steps a corporation takes to fulfill these necessities will rely on its location, assets and information processing actions, amongst different elements.

Knowledge processing ideas

The GDPR creates a set of ideas organizations should comply with when processing private information. The ideas are as follows.

The group has a lawful foundation for processing information.

The GDPR defines the circumstances beneath which firms can legally course of private information. A company should set up and doc its authorized foundation earlier than amassing any information. The group should talk this foundation to customers on the level of knowledge assortment. It can’t change the premise after the actual fact until it has person consent to take action.

The attainable lawful bases embrace:

The group has the topic’s consent to course of their information. Observe that person consent is barely legitimate whether it is knowledgeable, affirmative and freely given.

Knowledgeable consent means the corporate clearly explains what information it’s amassing and the way it will use that information.

Affirmative consent means the person should take some intentional motion to point out consent, akin to by signing an announcement or checking a field. Consent can’t be the default possibility.

Freely given consent means the corporate doesn’t try to affect or coerce the information topic. The topic should be capable of withdraw their consent at any time.

The group has a authorized obligation to course of the information.

The group should course of the information to guard the lifetime of the information topic or one other particular person.

The group is processing information for causes of the general public curiosity, akin to journalism or public well being.

The group is a public authority processing information to carry out an official perform.

The group is processing the information to pursue a authentic curiosity.

A authentic curiosity is a profit the controller or one other celebration may achieve by processing the information. Examples embrace conducting background checks on workers or monitoring IP addresses on a company community for cybersecurity functions. To say a authentic curiosity foundation, the group should show that the processing is critical and doesn’t infringe on topics’ rights. 

The group collects information for a particular goal and solely makes use of it for that goal.

In accordance with the GDPR precept of goal limitation, controllers should have an recognized and documented goal for amassing information. The controller should talk this goal to customers on the level of assortment, and it might solely use the information for this named goal.

The group solely collects the minimal quantity of knowledge obligatory.

Controllers can solely acquire the minimal quantity of knowledge obligatory to meet their acknowledged goal.

The group retains information correct and updated.

Controllers should take affordable steps to make sure the private information they maintain is correct and present. 

The group deletes information when it’s now not wanted.

The GDPR requires strict information retention and deletion insurance policies. Firms can solely hold information till the required goal for amassing that information has been fulfilled, they usually should delete the information as soon as they now not want it.

The group takes additional precautions when processing youngsters’s information or particular class information.

Controllers and processors should apply further protections to sure kinds of private information.

Particular class information contains extremely delicate information like an individual’s race and biometrics. Organizations can solely course of particular class information in very restricted circumstances, akin to to forestall severe public well being threats. Firms may course of particular class information with the topic’s specific consent.

Felony conviction information can solely be managed by public authorities. Processors can solely course of this info at a public authority’s route.

Controllers should acquire a mum or dad’s consent earlier than processing youngsters’s information. They need to take affordable steps to confirm the ages of topics and the identities of oldsters. If amassing information from youngsters, controllers should current privateness notices in child-friendly language.

Every EEA state units its personal definition of “youngster” beneath the GDPR. These vary from “anybody beneath the age of 13” to “anybody beneath the age of 16.” 

The group paperwork all information processing actions.

Organizations with greater than 250 workers should hold data of knowledge processing. Organizations with lower than 250 workers should hold data in the event that they course of extremely delicate information, course of information repeatedly or course of information in a means that poses a big threat to information topics.

Controllers should doc issues like the information they acquire, what they do with that information, information stream maps and information safeguards. Processors should doc the controllers for which they work, the kinds of processing they do for every controller and the safety controls they use.

The controller is in the end liable for guaranteeing compliance. 

Below the GDPR, final accountability for compliance rests with the information’s controller. This implies the controller should guarantee—and be capable of show—that its third-party processors meet all related GDPR necessities. 

Knowledge topics’ rights

The GDPR grants information topics sure rights over their information. Controllers and processors should honor these rights.

The group gives information topics straightforward methods to train their rights.

Organizations should give information topics a easy technique of asserting their rights over their information. These rights embrace:

The correct to entry: Topics should be capable of request and obtain copies of their information, in addition to related details about how the corporate makes use of the information.

The correct to rectification: Topics should be capable of right or replace their information.

The correct to erasure: Topics should be capable of request deletion of their information. 

The correct to limit processing: Topics should be capable of limit how their information is used if they believe the information is inaccurate, now not obligatory or being misused. 

The correct to object: Topics should be capable of object to processing. Topics who’ve beforehand granted their consent should be capable of simply withdraw it at any time.

The correct to information portability: Topics have the precise to switch their information, and controllers and processors should facilitate these transfers.

Generally, organizations should reply to all information topic entry requests inside 30 days. Firms should sometimes adjust to a topic’s request until the corporate can show it has a authentic, overriding motive to not.

If a corporation rejects a request, it should clarify why. The group should additionally inform the topic how you can attraction the choice to the corporate’s information safety officer or the related supervisory authority.

The group gives information topics a method to contest automated choices.

Below the GDPR, information topics have a proper to not be sure by automated decision-making processes that would have a big impression on them. This contains profiling, which the GDPR defines as utilizing automation to guage some facet of an individual, akin to predicting their work efficiency.

If a corporation does use automated choices, it should give information topics a method to contest these choices. Topics may request {that a} human worker overview any automated choices that impression them.

The group is clear about the way it makes use of private information.

Controllers and processors should proactively and clearly inform information topics about information processing actions, together with the information they acquire, what they do with it and the way topics can train their rights over information.

This info should sometimes be communicated by way of a privateness discover offered to the topic throughout information assortment. If the corporate doesn’t acquire private information immediately from topics, privateness notices should be despatched to the themes inside a month. Firms may additionally embrace these particulars in privateness insurance policies which are publicly accessible on their web sites. 

Knowledge privateness and safety measures

The GDPR requires controllers and processors to take steps to forestall the misuse of non-public information and shield information topics from hurt.

The group has applied applicable cybersecurity controls.

Controllers and processors should deploy safety measures to guard the confidentiality and integrity of non-public information. The GDPR doesn’t require any specific controls, however it does state that firms should undertake each technical and organizational measures.

Technical measures embrace expertise options, akin to id and entry administration (IAM) platforms, automated backups and information safety instruments. Whereas the GDPR doesn’t explicitly mandate encrypting information, it does advocate that organizations use pseudonymization and anonymization wherever attainable.

Organizational measures embrace worker coaching, ongoing threat assessments and different safety insurance policies and processes. Firms should additionally comply with the precept of knowledge safety by design and by default when creating or implementing new techniques and merchandise.

The group conducts information safety impression assessments (DPIAs) as required.

If an organization plans to course of information in a means that poses a excessive threat to the rights of topics, it should first conduct an information safety impression evaluation (DPIA). Kinds of processing that would set off a DPIA embrace automated profiling and the large-scale processing of particular classes of non-public information, amongst others.

A DPIA should describe the information getting used, the meant processing and the aim of the processing. It should determine the dangers of processing and methods to mitigate these dangers. If vital unmitigated threat exists, the group should seek the advice of a supervisory authority earlier than shifting ahead.

The group has appointed an information safety officer (DPO) if required.

A company should appoint an information safety officer (DPO) if it screens topics on a big scale or processes particular class information as a core exercise. All public authorities should appoint DPOs as nicely.

The DPO is liable for guaranteeing the group stays GDPR compliant. Key duties embrace coordinating with information safety authorities, advising the group on GDPR necessities and overseeing DPIAs.

The DPO should be an impartial officer who studies on to the very best stage of administration. The group can’t retaliate towards the DPO for performing their duties.

The group notifies supervisory authorities and information topics when information breaches happen.

Organizations should report most private information breaches to the related supervisory authority inside 72 hours. If the breach poses a threat to information topics, the group should additionally notify the themes. Organizations should notify topics immediately until direct communication can be unreasonable, by which case a public discover is suitable.

Processors that undergo a breach should notify the related controllers with out undue delay.

If situated exterior the EEA, the group has appointed a consultant within the EEA.

Any firm exterior the EEA that repeatedly processes EEA residents’ information or processes notably delicate information should appoint a consultant throughout the EEA. The consultant coordinates with authorities authorities on behalf of the corporate and acts as the purpose of contact for GDPR compliance issues.

Knowledge transfers and information sharing

The GDPR units guidelines for the way organizations share private information with different firms inside and outdoors the EEA.

The group makes use of formal information processing agreements to manipulate relationships with processors.

A controller can share private information with processors and different third events, however these relationships should be ruled by formal information processing agreements. These agreements should define the rights and obligations of all events with respect to the GDPR.

Third-party processors can solely course of information in accordance with the controller’s instructions. They can not use a controller’s information for their very own functions. A processor should acquire approval from the controller earlier than sharing information with a sub-processor.

The group solely conducts accredited information transfers exterior the EEA.

A controller can solely share information with a 3rd celebration situated exterior the EEA if the information switch meets at the very least one of many following standards:

The European Fee has deemed the information privateness legal guidelines of the nation the place the third celebration is situated to be enough.

The European Fee has deemed the third celebration to have enough information safety insurance policies and controls.

The controller has taken all of the steps obligatory to make sure the safety and privateness of the information being transferred.

Discover GDPR compliance options

GDPR compliance is an ongoing course of, and a corporation’s necessities can change because it collects new information and engages in new sorts of processing actions.

Knowledge safety and compliance options like IBM Safety® Guardium® will help streamline the method of reaching—and sustaining—GDPR compliance. Guardium can robotically uncover GDPR-regulated information, implement compliance guidelines for that information, monitor information utilization and empower organizations to answer threats to information safety.

Be taught extra about IBM’s suite of knowledge safety and compliance merchandise.